It's been pretty cold the past two nights (well, days too) so I harvested the rest of the broccoli heads and side shoots. I'll pull the plants up later.
I wasn't sure how my Swiss Chard would handle the freeze so I harvested all of the full sized leaves and had plans to put them in the freezer but I've only gotten as far as cleaning and chopping the leaves. I need to remember to blanch them tomorrow..
I was at Walmart at 7:30am Saturday morning to do my weekly shopping and to finish our Christmas shopping. I'm so happy to say that I'm done with Christmas shopping. Now to get it all wrapped....
Later that morning, Jon took the kids to see a model train display. They had a great time and it gave me about an hour of a quiet house to get it cleaned up and ready to make cookie dough.
Charlotte helped me make Cranberry Gems cookie dough to put in the freezer to be able to bake fresh cookies at Christmas. Her job was to roll them in sugar and to flatten them slightly.
Frozen and ready for the deep freezer for a few weeks.
Then we made a triple batch of peanut butter cookie dough with chocolate chips. These cookies are a long standing tradition in my family. Usually they have a big Hershey kiss plopped on top but I used chocolate chips instead since they're cheaper and easier.
Half of the cookie dough balls are rolled in sugar...
Frozen and ready to go....While we were in the kitchen baking, Charlotte helped me make homemade graham crackers.
Charlotte poked the holes on the top with a fork. I baked them in one big slab after scoring them with a pizza wheel.
They didn't get crisp since they were all touching so after they came out of the oven, I spread them out and baked them for a minute or two more to get crisp. 
Doesn't everyone eat their graham crackers stuffed into a laundry basket? I think Oscar wants a bite.During naptime Saturday I made homemade laundry detergent! Yay! I've been wanting to try it for a while. I'll write a separate blog post about it this week.
This morning we went over to mom's house for a few minutes to help move a huge rug with them.
During naptime I made another batch of peanut butter cookies to take to Jon's Marching Band's Christmas party this evening. No chocolate chips this time.
During naptime I made another batch of peanut butter cookies to take to Jon's Marching Band's Christmas party this evening. No chocolate chips this time.
After naptime, the kids and I bundled up and headed out to watch the local Christmas parade.
The highlight for us is always seeing Jon's band march in the parade. I told Charlotte she could run to Daddy and she was off in a flash.
Evan loved most of the parade until the truck with the hot air balloon burner passed us. They shot the flames into the air about 5 feet and Evan started to cry. He felt better when the police cars drove past.After the parade we went to the band's Christmas party and this is what the kids did the whole time.....
Run, eat, run, eat, dance, eat.....
Run, eat, run, eat, dance, eat..... We had a great, busy weekend and I'm exhausted! Now that the kids are in bed I'm going to go knit and enjoy watching the TIVO'd Steelers game with Jon. I hope everyone had a great weekend.
